Kwon made history in 2013 when President Park Geun Hye nominated her as the first female CEO of a Korean bank, the country’s fourth largest with $200 billion in assets and almost 13,000 employees. The English literature major has stemmed the mounting losses at the state-owned entity and delivered strong earnings, in part through expansion in the small and midsize loan market. The bank’s profits were up 20%, to $1.2 billion in 2014, and the IBK lifer is branching out overseas. Her goal: to become one of the world’s top 100 banks by assets in 2016. —Rupali Arora